One Fell Sweep (Innkeeper Chronicles 3)

“Yes,” Sunset said, his voice mournful.

Sean walked into the ballroom and moved along the wall, silently, like a shadow. He leaned against a column, watching the Hiru.

“The needled one explained it,” Moonlight said. “It is a time for family.”

“Do you have family?” Helen asked.

“No,” Sunset said.

“Where is your father?”

“He died,” Sunset said softly.

“My father died too,” Helen told him. “Where is your mom?”

“She died too.”

Helen bit her lip. “Do you have sisters?”

“I had two.”

“Where are they?”

“They are dead.”

Helen hesitated. “And brothers?”

“Also dead,” Sunset told her. “We are what remains of our families, little one. We are the last. We have nothing.”

Helen pondered him with that odd intensity I noticed about her before, stepped toward the Hiru, and held out the ornament to him. “Here.”

“What is it?” Sunset asked.

“A gift for you.” Helen stepped closer. “Take it.”

He reeled. Servos whirled somewhere within the Hiru, desperately trying to deal with what he was feeling. “A gift?” the translation program choked out, turning emotion into a screech.

“Yes,” Helen put the ornament into his palm. “Now you have something.”

Moonlight made a choking noise.

The Hiru swayed. His legs quivered. Somehow he stayed upright. “It is very beautiful,” he said, his voice suffused with emotion. “Thank you.”

He turned and held it out to Moonlight. Their mechanical hands touched. They held it together for a long second and then she gently pushed it back into his palm.

“That one is yours, but there is more,” Helen told him. “Come, I’ll show you.”

She took a running start and scrambled up the side of the bin to perch on its edge.

The Hiru followed her, holding the ornament gently in his fingers.

“He is a tari,” Moonlight said quietly. “His family doctored the trees.”

“What did your family do?” Any crumb of information was helpful.

“We studied the pathways between the stars.” Her head swiveled toward me. “We came to tell you that you don’t have to help us anymore. We put you in danger. We put everyone in danger. The next Archivarian is in a place from where it cannot be retrieved. You don’t have to fight anymore.”

“That isn’t up to the two of you. You are my guests. I have duties and responsibilities and you can’t cancel them. Where is the next Archivarian?”

“In the Sanctuary of Eno. Only a select few gain access to it. We are not welcome. You are not welcome. Those of the Sanctuary will not release the Archivarian to allow us to continue.”

I looked at my Christmas decorations and sighed. The last thing I wanted to do was to leave now.

“She’s right,” Sean said.

Moonlight made a little hop. She mustn’t have realized he was there.

“The Sanctuary is run by some sort of cult,” he said. “They kill anyone who enters uninvited.”

“They’re not cultists,” I told him. “They are prophets. They see into the future. They won’t release the Archivarian, but it doesn’t mean what you think it means.”

“Inconceivable,” Sean said. “What do you think it means?”

“It means Holy Seramina wishes to see me,” I told him.

* * *

“You’re not going alone,” Sean said.

“Arland is injured. He put on a good show for his uncle, but he’ll need all the help he can get.”

“You’re an attractive target,” he said. “They take you out, they take out the inn’s greatest defense. Kiran Mrak is scum but he isn’t stupid. You need protection. Maud can’t come with you, because she’s the only other innkeeper we have. Arland is recovering. That leaves me. This is my judgment as a security operative.”

I told him I would follow his lead. It was time to step up. “Okay.”

He nodded.

“To get to Eno, we’ll need a transgate.” I rubbed my face.

“You can find one at Baha-char,” Moonlight said. “It will cost you many money.”

“Wilmos has one,” Sean said.

“Would he let us use it?”

Sean just looked at me.

“Okay,” I said. “Wilmos it is.”

I pulled up a screen and thought of Maud. My sister appeared on it. She was in our kitchen. Caldenia and Lord Soren sat at the table next to her, sipping something out of steaming mugs.

“I have to go out,” I told her.

“Where?”

“The Sanctuary of Eno.”

Maud whistled.

“I know it’s a lot to ask with Arland still recovering, but can you hold the inn for several hours?”

Lord Soren squared his massive shoulders and bared his fangs in a happy grin that would give most people a lifetime of nightmares.

“Yes,” Maud said. “We’ll hold it. Dina, you might want to look outside. At the driveway.”

“Front window,” I murmured and the screen changed into the image of the street. On it, a black and white cruiser sat parked at the mouth of the Avalon subdivision. Two figures in gray hoodies stood on the sidewalk. Officer Marais loomed over them.